Two Year Old...

[Catmendo]

I can't say for sure, but I would say that this jeve' baldy is in its 2nd year phase.

This youngster was sitting atop a dead popular tree located in a low lying swamp. There are all sorts of ducks and Canada's with plenty of gosslings. It's clear to see why the eagle was sitting up of the high vantage.

In this pose, the eagle is actually staring directly down on a hen & drake mallard that were swimming below .

Here the youngster is taking a good hard look at me, the inturder.

I should point out a very interesting observation that I've made that began many years ago. It seems that bald eagles have crafted and honed

their hunting skills and have added Canada Goose to the dinner menu.

I first encountered this phenomenon a dozen years back when I witnessed an adult bald eagle as it launched a successful ariel attack on an adult Canada. I was blown away by the experience! There were approximately 50 - 70 Canada's that had recently taken to the wing. They might have been 100 feet between the geese and the ground when the eagle appeared from above, my guess the eagle was apporimately 100 feet above the geese and was flying in the same direction. Suddenly and intentionally the baldy veered off its flight course, made an extremely hard dive towards the ground (well below the flock of geese) and then at breakneck speed it shot upwards directly at the geese. A split second before impacting one of the trailing geese the eagle turned a vilolent 180 degree turn as it crashed into the goose! The impact was so great that a puff of feathers actually exploded in the air from the goose! Althought the impact was incredible, it did not cause the goose to fold and crash to the ground. Rather the goose began to slowly descend to the ground (gliding) with the eagle in hot pursuit. I never witnessed the actual kill as they both flew off in the distance and eventually dropped behind a wall of standing poplar trees. Evere since that day I have payed much more atention to eagles and Canada geese and it seems that this lethal rivalry continues to play out.

In the area where I captured these images, there are many adult geese and many, many young gosslings. Easy prey for large predators like the bald eagle!

[Dbl]

Ouch, nice capture Stu...I think. LOL

[Catmendo]

Thanks Dan! The eagle seems to have no regard for keeping the pond clean, LOL!